Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Basic twinkie tush information and welcome to new fans!

It’s been a long time since we had a basic informational blog post! We are rapidly approaching 3,000 fans on facebook and we get emails almost every day from new fans with questions about how stockings work, what a group custom is, and what goes into our diapers! So we wanted to put together a one stop blog post for all of the basic twinkie tush info! :)

First of all, welcome! My name is Gretchen, and my husband Mike and I own and operate twinkie tush! twinkie tush is named after our almost 3 year old twins, whom we called the twinkies when I was pregnant. :)

We opened up shop in December 2010 as a small WAHM company – I made something in the realm of 30-40 diapers a month and stocked every 2 weeks on Hyena Cart. After a short time we moved to weekly stockings. I did everything myself in those early days. Within a few stockings, we were selling out in minutes each time. We quickly realized that the demand was high for our one size fitted cloth diapers, and we took steps to increase production. In April of 2011 we brought on our first team member, Sara, to cut fabric! :) Since then we have added 3 more part-time team members – Jackie and Anne help with diapers and Jen does all of our knitting. Mike’s role grew exponentially over the first year of business as well! We are a close knit team and lots of love goes into making our diapers and wool!

So what else goes into our diapers? :) Four types of fabric, to start with. There is the inner lining which is either organic bamboo velour or cotton velour depending on the diaper. Then there is organic bamboo fleece and stretch fleece in between the inner velour and the outer print fabric. And finally the face of the diaper - the print! The vast majority of our diapers consist of knit outer prints (jersey, interlock, poly cotton lycra, etc.) but on occasion we use woven prints as well (aka quilter’s cotton).

About the velours: organic bamboo velour is just about the softest, silkiest fabric you can imagine when it's new and unwashed. The term organic bamboo velour or obv refers to industry standard obv which is made up of 70% bamboo, 28% organic cotton, and 2% polyester.

Cotton velour is almost as heavenly soft when it's new but not quite as silky as obv. Cotton velour is made up of 80% cotton and 20% poly blend. Cotton velour or cv tends to stay softer longer than obv, which is part of why some people prefer cv.

About the fleece: organic bamboo fleece or obf is made up of 70% bamboo and 30% organic cotton. It is an extremely absorbent fabric which is why you will find the many layers of obf in a twinkie tush diaper lead to extremely high levels of absorbency all around! :)

In late Summer 2011, we began incorporating bamboo stretch fleece into our diapers as well. Our customers have given us incredibly positive feedback on the new fit they achieve with this uber-stretchy material! Stretch fleece is made of 70% Bamboo, 25% Organic Cotton and 5% spandex.

Stretch fleece is included in all knit prints and in twinkie tush night-nights but is not included in woven prints. The reason for this is because a diaper is only as stretchy as its least stretchy component. In the case of a woven that would be the outer print. Nothing is gained in adding stretch to the inner of a diaper when the outer prevents any stretch from occurring. However, shortly after introducing the new stretch fleece fit we adjusted our woven pattern to allow for longer wings. This gives the illusion of stretch and our customers report that the new wovens fit amazingly well!

The other materials that go into twinkie tush diapers are polyacetal resin snaps and thread, as well as our labels. All snaps and fabric are certified lead free. We use US-based vendors and suppliers whenever possible.

So now that you know what goes into a twinkie tush diaper – what does it all look like? Here are some photos of our unique “soaker sandwich” system. This system is part of what makes twinkie tush diapers highly sought after, as it provides incredible absorbency.

We also made an instructional video when we first started out! This will show you a bit more about using a twinkie tush one size fitted cloth diaper!

In addition to our standard fitteds we have designed a nighttime diaper called the twinkie tush night-night. Take a look at some photos of the twinkie tush night-night below and on facebook:

Now about pricing: Our standard one size fitted diapers are priced at $35. Occasionally we stock imported or out of print outer fabrics and we raise the price of individual diapers to offset our own costs. We never mark up because something is scarce or highly sought after. We only ever mark up if we have paid more first. twinkie tush night-nights are priced at $40, as they contain significantly more fabric (both velour and fleece).

The reason our high-absorbency fitteds have a relatively high price point is because of all of the materials that go into them, as well as the fact that they are handmade domestically. The cost of the velours and fleece is substantial. Why is it worth paying more for diapers made with these high end materials? Because there is nothing gentler and more natural to put next to your baby's skin. There is nothing softer, more breathable or more luxurious. We stand by our materials with pride. We also consider it very important to pay our team members a fair wage. Those things necessitate the price point we reside at. One thing we have never done and won't ever do is to raise prices for the sole purpose of increasing our profit margin. Any price increases have been and will be a direct result of greater material cost and/or labor cost.

My own cloth diapering journey began as a stay at home mom (SAHM) on a fixed budget, and a fair price point is something that is extremely important to me. Now, as a WAHM and business owner, it is my mission to provide high quality luxury diapers at a fair price so that as many people as possible can enjoy them.

We’ve now covered who we are, what goes into our diapers, how to use them, what they cost, and why. So how do you purchase a twinkie tush diaper?

We currently stock our store on Hyena Cart every Wednesday. In order to participate in stockings you will need to have a (free) HC account and you will need to be signed in to that account at stocking time. We alternate between 2pm and 8pm (EST) stockings. When I refer to a “stocking” that means that at a set time, listings go “live.” At this point, and for nearly a year now, all diaper listings sell out within seconds. This means that it is necessary to be online and ready to click “add to cart” at the precise moment of stocking if you want to purchase a twinkie tush diaper this way. We know that it can be very frustrating to try repeatedly to purchase one of our diapers, to no avail. We have worked diligently over the past year to increase production and now make 200-220 diapers a month. We will continue to work on increasing production and making the stocking process more fun and rewarding for everyone!

In the past few weeks stockings have become even more frustrating as it has become more and more clear that we have outgrown the capabilities of Hyena Cart. The traffic in attendance is simply more than the site can handle. We have tremendous love and respect for Hyena Cart and will continue to maintain a presence there for drawings and special events, but we plan to move away from the site for regular stockings in the very near future. This week (2/8/12) will likely be our last full stocking on HC. More to come on that soon.

On Tuesdays (the day before stockings), we preview the prints we will be stocking on our facebook page. Many customers will stop in to check out previews so that they can plan which diaper(s) they will try for on stocking day.

It has become twinkie tush tradition that after the regular listings go live on stocking days and once payment is completed on all listings (usually about 10-20 minutes), we post drawings for custom slots. That is something that happens, and will continue to happen, on Hyena Cart.

That leads me to the second way you can purchase a twinkie tush diaper: via custom slot drawing. We have drawings after the stockings, as I just mentioned, and we also run weekly custom slot contests on our very active facebook page! Sometimes we tie in a theme and sometimes it’s just a random number drawing. If you would like to enter a custom slot drawing, keep an eye on the facebook page!

About custom slots: on the facebook page we usually offer custom slots that can be used for in stock prints (click here for an album which shows our in stock prints for customs), SYOF (which stands for send your own fabric) or twinkie tush night-nights. On HC the slot designations are specified in the listings, so when you enter a drawing you are entering specifically for an in stock slot or a send your own fabric slot.

The third way you can purchase one of our diapers is via a Group Custom slot. The Group Custom (GC) process has evolved quite a bit over the past several months. Please see the most recent process laid out in full here. It is definitely not a simple process, but it is what we have come to out of a fervent desire to be fair. Our GC slots are in extremely high demand and it is important to us that we make things as fair as possible! GC slots are offered once a month at this point.

What do you need to know about our community?

On our main fan page and fan discussion page there are very few “rules”. Our main request is that all members show respect for others and for twinkie tush. To that end we don’t allow name-calling, cursing, or promoting of other brands. This has not been an issue for us – to date we have not had to take action against anyone, which we are very grateful for! We have come to know we can expect the very best from our truly fantastic customer base.

We have no rules or clauses about the secondary market. Once you have purchased a twinkie tush diaper you are free to use, gift, sell, or trade it (or anything else you choose) as it is yours. If you are looking for a previously owned twinkie tush diaper, a good place to start is the fan discussion and B/S/T (buy/sell/trade) page. We just ask that you follow through with a sale or trade once it has been posted, and that you specify exactly how you intend to sell and at what price point.

We have an active community on facebook, both on the main page and on the fan discussion page. We are incredibly grateful for our amazing fan base. We consider our customers some of the most intelligent, supportive, kind and fun people we have the privilege to know. We often run photo contests – we are running one right now in fact! Details here! – and on occasion we’ll host themed trivia contests and the like. We love the interactive spirit and the sheer fun we have with our fans, and we are continually motivated to do our very best for them!

What are our customers saying about us? You can find that info here and here! Customer service is extremely important to us – we are always responsive and available and we consider it our responsibility to ensure 100% satisfaction with our products.

So now I hope you feel you know quite a bit about who we are and what we do! We are always available if you have questions or feedback. You can reach us at twinkietush@gmail.com.

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About Me

My name is Gretchen Gilpin and I am the creator, owner and chief operator of twinkie tush cloth diapers! My husband Mike and I work together to run twinkie tush, along with a growing team of employees! twinkie tush was named after our now almost 6 year old twins, M&D!